Edgeworth, Maria - Anthony Cronin (essay date 1982)
Anthony Cronin (essay date 1982)
SOURCE: "Maria Edgeworth: The Unlikely Precursor," in Heritage Now: Irish Literature in the English Language, St. Martin's Press, 1982, pp. 17-29.
[In the following essay, Cronin singles out the specifically Irish characteristics of Edgeworth's; Castle Rackrent, including a "devouring interest in speech" and the "absence of plot. "
If Irish literature in English begins anywhere, it begins with Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent; and the key dates in Maria's life as far as the composition of the novel is concerned have a melancholy aptness. Born in England, she had been given a brief, tantalising glimpse of Ireland as a child of six; and then whisked back to become, at the age of eight, a boarder at Mrs. Lataffier's academy for the daughters of gentlefolk at Derby; and—at thirteen—a pupil at Mrs. Davis's seminary in Upper Wimpole Street. When she was fifteen her admired father had...
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